Analysis: The story behind the resurgence of physical book and record sales

As with the death of the black and white television, the home telephone and the typewriter, it had appeared that the new wave of modern technology - namely e-books and downloads - would kill off our appetite for physical books and records, and they’d soon become rare collectable items.

But for all the predictions, a different story appears to be on the page. In a twist straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, this month booksellers reported that physical books are back in vogue.

Waterstones, the UK’s biggest books retailer, said sales of physical books rose 5% in December compared with the same month in 2013. On the back of the resurgence of print, Waterstones chief executive James Daunt said the retailer plans to open a dozen new stores this year.

While demand for books increased during the year - despite there being no phenomenal book success like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ in 2012 – the retailer said sales of its Amazon Kindle had shrunk dramatically in December.

It was a similar fairytale for physical books at Foyles, which recorded an 8.1% rise in like-for-like sales in December. Chief executive Sam Husain said of the figures: “I think the print market is coming back and I would expect print books to have a resurgence.”

Meanwhile academic bookshop chain Blackwells is back in the black after recording a profit of £400,000, up from a £2.8m loss in 2013.

So what’s keeping the page turning for physical books? Husain said the retailer’s Christmas sales were boosted by “very impressive Christmas campaigns supported by publishers” for books such as ‘Not That Kind of Girl’ by Lena Dunham.

But is this simply a Christmas tale or does it reflect a wider trend for a resurgence of physical books? Daunt told the Telegraph that the rise in sales was not just a one-off. “We’ve had month after month now of modest sales growth in books. But on the basis of fairly savage declines, that’s very positive for us,” he said.

Print is the word

Print still dominates book sales even in countries where there have been strong sales of e-books. In a report published earlier this month, Deloitte predicted that print is still likely to generate the majority of book sales for the foreseeable future. It added that sales of e-books have hit a “hit a plateau, or seen decelerating growth” in markets including the UK and US.

Although physical CDs, DVDs, print newspapers and magazines aren’t favoured by millennials, that doesn’t extend to printed books - Deloitte found that 92% of 18 to 29-year-olds in the US read print books in 2013.

Deloitte retail analyst Paul Lee said he was confident about the future of the physical book: “For some people, it’s like showing a perception of themselves like a brand they wear. For example, when Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ was published, some people bought it to show they were interested in science.”

In other words, people like to show off their books on their bookshelves at home or while travelling on the Tube.

While physical books are enjoying a resurgence, independent booksellers still face tough times – almost 40% of all books (print and e-books combined) in the UK were bought from online-only retailers in 2012 and that number is likely to be higher now, Nielsen Bookscan added. 

Record record sales

While physical books are enjoying a heyday, can the same be said for vinyl? In the week before Christmas, HMV recorded its highest sales of vinyl since the mid-1990s and said vinyl album sales increased 170% in the year to the end of December, shifting more than 350,000 units. In line with the growing trend for physical sales, HMV said it overtook Amazon in the two weeks before Christmas to become the UK’s largest retailer of physical entertainment products, accounting for one in three sales of CDs and DVDs.

Figures from music business body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) paint a similarly rosy picture for vinyl. Sales of vinyl albums reached their highest level since 1995, with 1.3 million sold in 2014, up from 780,674 in 2013.

A BPI spokesman said demand was being driven by baby boomers as well as millennials.

“The core is coming from baby boomers who are buying records as a piece of art but then younger people are buying them as they see records as the essence of rock music,” he said. The demand is spurring labels to reissue and repackage records.

However, let’s not head into old romantics territory just yet – vinyl only accounts for 2% of all music sales.

But the revival of print and vinyl is certainly a good story for booksellers and record stores, and should be music to many retailers’ ears.